1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a press which has a vertically movable slide for acting on tools or dies to form metallic materials into a variety of shapes. More particularly, the present invention pertains to a press which is capable of performing a variety of processes in one stroke of the slide.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In metal forming, it is often desired to perform a variety of processes such as drawing, trimming, and piercing to form a workpiece or material into a varied shape such as a product shaped like a silk hat.
Heretofore, it has been customary that a workpiece is continuously fed into several presses each having a set of dies for forming a peculiar shape in order to form a varied shape. For instance, a workpiece is drawn by a first press and next trimmed by a second press and then it is pierced by a third press to be formed into a varied shape.
Accordingly, it has been disadvantageous that there is a need for a number of presses and transferring apparatus or robots for feeding workpieces in order to make products of a varied shape. Therefore, it has been also disadvantageous that a big amount of cost and a wide space are necessary for such a number of presses.
In order to solve this problem, it is proposed that one set of dies is designed to perform a variety of forming processes on one press and in one stroke of the slide of the press. However, it is extremely difficult to make such a set of dies, since it is necessary that various elements move differently in each forming process in a manner such that some of them are stopped from moving while the others are being moved. Also, it is inevitable that dies for performing a variety of forming processes are very complicated and accordingly they are very costly and expensive.